Jodi-Ann Burey Reframes Sex After 10-Year Ordeal With Spinal Cord Tumor and Surgery
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Sep 2
Jodi-Ann Burey Reframes Sex After 10-Year Ordeal With Spinal Cord Tumor and Surgery
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 2
Summary
A spinal cord tumor discovered after years of worsening symptoms left Burey facing possible paralysis, and surgery that removed it also reshaped her sex life through numbness, incontinence and other sensory changes.
Dr. Lisa Ruppert, a spinal cord injury specialist, helped her understand reflexogenic and psychogenic arousal and test practical strategies—visual stimulation, reduced sensory overload and mapping shifted erogenous zones.
Burey says she initially treated sex after surgery like rehab, but therapy and disability-focused perspectives pushed her to value intimacy, curiosity and pleasure rather than restoring her body to its pre-injury state.
The essay argues the US healthcare system still sidelines sexual health—only 29% of OB-GYNs in a 2013 survey asked about sexual satisfaction—leaving many disabled patients to self-advocate for care.
Her broader conclusion is that pleasure is not a trivial extra after survival but part of healing, dignity and self-determination for disabled people and women whose sexual needs are often ignored.